1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the field of medical technology and concerns a system and a method to minimize downtimes of medical apparatuses, in particular of imaging modalities such as computed tomography systems, MR apparatuses, radioscopy and acquisition systems, ultrasound apparatuses, etc.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As is known, technical systems or apparatuses of any type can fail or develop errors after a time period that cannot be individually predicted. Depending on the severity of the error that occurs, the systems or apparatuses are not at all affected in terms of their functionality, only slightly, or entirely. In the prior art, given the presence of an error situation, the user must initially make the decision as to whether the system or the apparatus can continue to be operated in spite of a (slight) error. In order to make this decision, the user must be able to estimate the degree of severity of the error situation. However, the user on site is typically not capable of correctly assessing error situations (in particular given complex technical apparatuses as are used in medical technology), such that the user overwhelmingly tends to not continue to use the medical apparatus given the occurrence of any error, but rather immediately requests a service technician. The medical apparatus therefore remains unused until the arrival of a service technician on site.
The called service technician inspects the malfunctioning medical apparatus (for example a CT apparatus) in order to obtain an impression of the current apparatus or error situation. Based on his or her experience, the technician then attempts to correct the error. In the event that this is not possible, the technician forwards a description of the error situation to a supervisory entity known as an uptime service center (USC). In the event that the USC cannot correct the error, the error is relayed to an entity known as a headquarter support center (HSC). In the event that the error still cannot be corrected here, the software or hardware development department of the manufacturer is called in order to analyze and correct the present error situation. Error situations that have previously occurred in user operation and their remedy are typically centrally known to the software or hardware development departments of the manufacturer, such that this knowledge is in principle available to the service technician. If a previously unknown (new) error situation occurs, this is analyzed on site by the service technician, described and transferred to the manufacturer, including a suggestion for error correction, an estimation of the effect of the error on the continued operation of the medical apparatus, and with data from the system log. An evaluation occurs at the manufacturer, with the result of the evaluation—for example the description of the error situation, the estimation of the effect of the error on the functionality and therefore the continued usability of the apparatus, the generation of instructions for error correction by the user, the generation of instructions for error correction and servicing to the service technician etc.—being centrally available at the manufacturer.
The previous procedure has proven to be disadvantageous for multiple reasons. It leads to long apparatus downtimes and in almost all error cases it requires the use of a service technician on site, which in turn incurs high costs. According to the conventional procedure, the risk also exists that it is easily possible that individual parameters with regard to the apparatus to be analyzed and/or the error situation to be analyzed are overlooked by the service technician, such that the technician possibly arrives at misinterpretations, which overall increases the risk of error.